Vermund, Polack elected to American Pediatric Society

Two Vanderbilt physicians, both in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, have been elected to the American Pediatric Society (APS), one of the nation’s oldest and most renowned academic societies.

Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., the Amos Christie Chair and director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH), and Fernando Polack, M.D., the Cesar Milstein Chair in Pediatrics will be inducted at the society’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. in May. Vermund will also receive the Norman J. Siegel New Member Outstanding Science Award.

Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D.

Vermund, a professor of Pediatrics, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology and Preventive Medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, is widely known for his work on HIV care and treatment in underserved areas in the United States as well as numerous countries around the world including Mozambique, Zambia, Pakistan and China. While at VIGH, he has made significant discoveries for the treatment and prevention of HIV. He provided leadership for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 2006-2012.

While at VIGH, he has made significant discoveries for the treatment and prevention of HIV. He provides leadership for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) at the NIH. As director of the VIGH, Vermund heads numerous federally funded research grants and contributes to multidisciplinary efforts to train the next generation of global health experts.

Polack, a professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, works to investigate seasonal respiratory illnesses in children from bases in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in Nashville. As director of the INFANT Foundation for Children’s Infectious Disease Research, a research and clinical program based in Buenos Aires, Polack has research published in a number of top medical publications, including Nature Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine.

His projects are wide-ranging. He has created a motorcycle brigade to distribute breast milk door-to-door in order to examine potential benefits of donor human milk for premature infants in rural areas. He also provided laboratory evidence that an errant immune response caused the lungs of hundreds of previously healthy adults to become inflamed during the H1N1 epidemic.

The APS, founded in 1888, is the oldest honorary society for academic pediatricians. Members are recognized for leadership, teaching, research and contributions at a national and international level.